The Undying Magician - Book 1 - Chapter 30 - Test (Patreon)

The following excerpt has been changed slightly from chapter 22, about training mana arcs. The new addition to it is in bold.

 A few seconds after the image of the two blazing red mana arcs running throughout my body appears in my mind, the instructor continues speaking again, “After that’s done, all you have to do to train your arcs is mess around with it. Whether that means visualizing yourself reaching out for it and pinching it, or it means lightly massaging and stretching it. Any sort of action towards them that puts some sort of strain will train the arc.”

I begin to visualize myself reaching out and stretching the arc slightly before raising my eyebrows in surprise as small little embers begin dropping off of the mana arc at the areas around where I touched, causing a minor burning sensation in my chest that doesn’t last long.

“When you do this, you should feel a little bit of discomfort around your chest. This discomfort will be tied to whatever element you have an affinity for, so people with fire affinity will feel a slight burning sensation, while those with water affinity will feel an uncomfortable rush of some sort of fluid through your chest. But you can only train one arc at a time, and you can’t train an arc while one is still developing. No one, not even Class S magicians, has been able to figure out the reason for this. It just doesn’t train the arc, leaving you with nothing but the discomfort and no progress.” Her voice continues as I reach out again to poke and prod at the mana arc. “You will know when your mana arc is ready to split by instinct, and if you try to split an arc that isn’t ready, then you will immediately be filled with a sense of revulsion, forcing you to stop. Sort of like a gag reaction, where your body forces you to stop doing something that will be considered harmful to you.”

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                                                                                       Nathan

                                                       Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 10 | Monday

The first weapons he tests also happens to have one of the largest groups of cadets in it.

The sword.

Interestingly enough, all he does for the initial part of the test is pair up each cadet and have them spar with their swords, letting the BFS’s safety feature handle any potential fatalities as he watches and critiques them.

Overall, it honestly looks more like a combination of both a test and a lesson in one.

That is, until it gets to the point where he finishes going through all seven pairs and points towards the other end of the test room, where several different pieces of equipment are located, including things like workout equipment, small tracks, and even some magical devices that the regular magician checkups use to check your mana arcs.

Once all of the cadets for the weapon room finish gathering near the equipment, he has them each go through various tests meant to determine their general physical, magical, and even mental capabilities. Although he doesn’t go very far with the mental capabilities. Not much further than simple IQ tests.

Not like he could though, seeing as mental magic – outside of some Special magic affinities – is usually usable only by Class B magicians and up.

As soon as he finishes administering the tests for each cadet in the room, he moves on to the next room, and repeats the process with a different initial test for their weapon. At some point, I stop paying attention to instead focus on practicing my shooting instead.

It isn’t until I hear the instructor shout, “Leave the BFS,” that my attention is drawn away from the target I was firing at to look at the instructor again as he himself begins to step out of the BFS towards the panel, followed soon after by the rest of the cadets.

I guess he finished.

With that thought in mind, I turn to look at my watch before raising my brows in surprise.

Their tests took two-thirds of the class?

Wow.

Guess we’re not doing anything outside of tests today.

I glance at Rebecca before turning back to the BFS.

Would have been nice to have someone else from my team in the same testing group.

The instructor continues pressing buttons on the panel for several seconds before the rooms begin to merge into a much smaller number of rooms than there were for the close combat tests.

I look through the rooms for the sniper one, only to be left confused as the room marked for it only has the equipment for the other tests and doesn’t seem to have anywhere to shoot.

“We’re going to be starting with the snipers,” the instructor says, drawing my attention towards him as he points over to the shooting range near me, “but since the BFS can’t handle expanding to a large enough distance for us to properly shoot a sniper rifle, you’ll be using the shooting range for the weapons part of the test.”

Oh? Well, that explains it then.

And it piques my interest a little bit as well.

Just where are we anyways? Since I’m pretty sure it’s not expanding through space magic, like the BFS is. Which means that we’re in a facility somewhere that can have it stretch pretty damn far without any issues.

I think on this for a few seconds as I begin to make my way over to the shooting range before deciding to just ask the instructor at another time.

Seeing as I was already close to the shooting range before he told us to go there, I end up being the first one there. Which also apparently leads the instructor to say, “Nathan, come here,” while pointing at a lane in front of him and messing with the panel for that specific lane.

Guess that means I’m going first.

I walk up to the lane before placing my rifle’s case on the ground and gripping my rifle in both of my hands.

Since I was practicing my shots earlier, it’s already out of the case and ready. So I don’t have to waste time with that.

Which is probably a good thing, considering the strange looks some of the other cadets are giving me for even having one in the first place when none of them do.

I grimace slightly before glancing at the instructor as he continues messing with the panel. This goes on for several seconds while the other sniper cadets make their way over here until he presses one last button on the panel and the target on the shooting range begins to fly backwards to a distance of 500 meters – according to the panel screen.

“To pass the test, all you have to do is hit the target,” he says while sending me a look that clearly tells me he won’t be satisfied with me simply hitting the target, despite what he’s saying out loud.

Okay, so make within the first few rings of the target then.

The target has about six rings, with the first ring being the bullseye, and the sixth one being the outer few inches of the target. So this shouldn’t be too difficult. Not with the hours of practice he’s had me do.

Although it would be a different thing entirely if it were at a further distance, or if there was any wind here to mess up my shot.

Putting my thoughts aside for now, I raise my rifle before aiming at the target and taking a deep breath. After holding it for a few seconds, I make sure my eye isn’t too close to the scope and that the butt of the rifle is firmly in place against my shoulder before pulling the trigger, causing the shot to echo throughout the silent facility.

I then continue looking through the scope at the target before sighing as I find the bullet stuck to the target on the third ring, which is about halfway from the bullseye to the edge of the target.

Right as I’m lowering my rifle again, the target suddenly begins to move backwards.

Uh…

I glance at the instructor, who simply says, “Since you did so well with that shot, let’s see how you do at 750 meters.”

Say what?

Aren’t you supposed to be here to help me keep my immortality a… actually, never mind.

I almost forgot that he seems to care more about being my teacher than he does about my secret.

Either that or he’s just very confident in his backup being enough to keep my immortality a secret when people eventually see me healing.

Anyways, ignoring the impressed and – in the case of a couple of the cadets – jealous looks from the others, I turn back to the lane while prepping for the next shot. After that, I repeat the process from earlier before firing again at the target, leaving this bullet stuck to the fifth ring this time.

I sigh again while lowering my rifle.

Another hit. That’s good at least.

I’m a little surprised that I got it in the fifth ring this time though, since I never could during my practice at this distance.

“Good. You pass. Go to the rifle test room in the BFS,” the instructor says before waving me away and looking at the next closest cadet. “You’re up next, cadet Ariel.”

I smile slightly while grabbing my rifle case and stepping back.

Good thing he didn’t try it at 1km, because I haven’t been able to hit the target at that range yet.

But I should be able to once I get fully used to the recoil on the shot.

Before I go to the test room, I stop several meters away from the shooting range to disassemble my rifle and place it back into its case, all while taking note of the gazes watching me. Most of them had turned to watch the next girl, but there are one or two less than pleasant gazes still locked onto me for some reason.

That might be an issue in the future.

Right as I’m finishing disassembling my rifle, I hear a gunshot, followed by the instructor saying, “Try again.”

I close my rifle’s case back up before walking the rest of the way towards the BFS.

Yeah, in hindsight, some of the cadets might just be mad at me because I got the instructor’s full focus during the last class when we were learning our weapons. Which makes sense, no matter how much I wish it wasn’t the case.

Anyways, I enter the BFS room for sniper rifle users before looking around to find a place to sit as I wait for the others.

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